3D movies may be nothing more than a "phase", according to Oscar-winning British director Danny Boyle.

Boyle, who on Sunday night received an outstanding contribution prize at the Empire awards, said he was not a fan of stereoscope on film and doubted it would survive.

"I don't use 3D," he said. "I'm a spectacle wearer, so I hate going to 3D movies because you have to wear two pairs of spectacles, which makes you feel like even more of a prat. You know how everybody feels a bit of prat wearing 3D spectacles? You as a spectacle wearer feel a double prat."

Boyle admitted there was "extraordinary work" being carried out in 3D, describing some of the effects in Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Life of Pi as "incredible". But he added: "It's a tool, you know. There are sound innovations coming actually, particularly Dolby Atmos, which are going to do something very equivalent to what 3D does. So, I don't know if 3D will survive to be honest. I think it may be a phase."

Boyle's comments place him in the opposite corner from film-makers such as Avatar's James Cameron, who has embraced 3D with messianic zeal. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson eventually opted to shoot his new Middle-earth-set fantasy trilogy, The Hobbit, in stereoscope despite earlier misgivings. Lee and Martin Scorsese have brought an auteurish edge to the technology, though the latter has opted to shoot his new film in 2D after bringing the Oscar-winning Hugo to the big screen in three dimensions. Many had expected his new project The Wolf of Wall Street to follow suit: Scorsese suggested in 2011 that he would consider shooting all his future films in 3D and would have liked to shot Taxi Driver and The Aviator in stereoscope had the technology been available.

Boyle's new film, the heist thriller Trance, is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday and in the US on 5 April. Starring James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassell, it will screen only in good old-fashioned 2D.